05 October 2017 :

Duane Buck, Whose Death Sentence Was Tainted by Racial Bias, Is Resentenced to Life. Duane Buck, the Texas death-row prisoner whose controversial racially tainted death sentence was reversed by the U.S Supreme Court in February, has been resentenced to life in prison. In a plea deal entered in a Harris County (Houston) courtroom on October 3, Buck, who is 54, pled guilty to two new counts of attempted murder that each carried terms of 60 years in prison to be served concurrently with two life sentences imposed on his capital murder charges. In a news release, District Attorney Kim Ogg said, "after reviewing the evidence and the law, I have concluded that, twenty-two years after his conviction, a Harris County jury would likely not return another death penalty conviction in a case that has forever been tainted by the indelible specter of race. Accordingly, in consideration for Buck pleading guilty to two additional counts of attempted murder we have chosen not to pursue the death penalty." After 20 years on death row and numerous appeals in which he was denied relief by the state and federal courts, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on February 22 (see) that Buck's capital sentencing hearing had been unconstitutionally poisoned by the testimony of a psychologist—presented by his own lawyer—that Buck was more likely to commit future acts of violence because he is black. Saying that the "law punishes people for what they do, not who they are," Chief Justice John Roberts said that the "particularly noxious" stereotyping of Buck as dangerous because he is a black man was toxic testimony that was "deadly" even "in small doses." "No competent defense attorney," Roberts wrote, "would introduce such evidence about his own client.” Because Texas did not provide life without parole as an alternative to the death penalty at the time of Buck's trial in 1995, Ogg insisted on the two additional charges for attempted murder to foreclose the possibility of release when Buck became eligible for parole from the life sentences in 2035. She said the plea deal "can close a chapter in the history of our courts, in that they will never again hear that race is relevant to criminal justice or to the determination of whether a man will live or die. Race is not and never has been evidence." The plea deal also contained an unusual "anti-murderabilia" provision in which the parties agreed that Buck would not attempt to profit from any books, movies, or other projects connected to the murders. District Judge Denise Collins acknowledged the provision, but said it was not enforceable in criminal court. Buck barged into his girlfriend's home after she broke up with him and killed her and a friend. Later that morning in July 1995, he fired a rifle at his stepsister, who survived because the bullet just missed her heart. His guilt was never in doubt, and Mr. Buck, 54, who is black, was sentenced to death by lethal injection. But concerns about testimony from a psychologist in the sentencing phase - that black people were more dangerous than white people - raised concerns about the role of race in the jury's decision and led the case to reach the Supreme Court. In February, the Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing trial for Mr. Buck, calling the psychologist's testimony racist. In a Houston courtroom on Tuesday, Mr. Buck pleaded guilty to 2 counts of attempted murder, including the shooting of his stepsister, in a deal that exchanged the death penalty for a life sentence plus 2 60-year terms. "This case can accomplish something," said Kim Ogg, the Harris County district attorney. "It can close a chapter in the history of our courts, in that they will never again hear that race is relevant to criminal justice or to the determination of whether a man will live or die. Race is not and never has been evidence." After Mr. Buck's conviction in 1997, his lawyer called Walter Quijano, a former chief psychologist for the state prison system, to the stand during the sentencing phase. Mr. Quijano, who had evaluated Mr. Buck, testified that race could be a factor in predicting whether a person posed a future danger to society. A prosecutor asked Mr. Quijano, "The race factor, black, increases the future dangerousness for various complicated reasons - is that correct?" "Yes," the psychologist replied. The psychologist's answers became the basis of an appeal claiming that Mr. Buck had not been properly represented by his lawyer. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the Supreme Court's majority in a 6-to-2 ruling, said Mr. Quijano's testimony "appealed to a powerful racial stereotype - that of black men as 'violence prone.'" Mr. Buck will be moved from death row in Texas, where more than 230 inmates await lethal injection, and he will be eligible for parole in 2035. Ms. Ogg said her office would work to ensure he is never granted release. Over the years, Mr. Buck had an unusual advocate in his stepsister, Phyllis Taylor, who had forgiven him and had argued for his release from death row. Ms. Taylor said in a statement on Tuesday she was thankful that Ms. Ogg had reached a deal to avoid another sentencing trial. "The thought of going through another trial was just too much to bear," Ms. Taylor said.